Definition of stagger

• n. - To move to one side and the other, as if about to fall, in standing or walking; not to stand or walk with steadiness; to sway; to reel or totter.
• n. - To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
• n. - To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
• v. t. - To cause to reel or totter.
• v. t. - To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.
• v. t. - To arrange (a series of parts) on each side of a median line alternately, as the spokes of a wheel or the rivets of a boiler seam.
• n. - An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing, as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion; vertigo; -- often in the plural; as, the stagger of a drunken man.
• n. - A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; appopletic or sleepy staggers.
• n. - Bewilderment; perplexity.